1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a body structure of a hybrid vehicle, and in particular, to a body structure of a hybrid vehicle that has a battery pack disposed outside the cabin of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is commonly known a body structure of a hybrid vehicle that has a battery pack disposed on the back side of the rear seats. The body structure of a hybrid vehicle needs a shielding member that prevents heat from being transmitted to the rear seats, the heat being radiated from the battery pack.
The necessity of a shielding member may increase the production cost of the body structure of a hybrid vehicle. In addition, the body structure of such a hybrid vehicle may cause the temperature in the vehicle cabin to be increased due to the heat radiated from the battery pack.
Thus, in recent years, there has been a demand for a body structure of a hybrid vehicle that has the battery pack disposed outside the vehicle cabin. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2000-247261 discloses a vehicle body floor structure that has a battery below the floor panel of the vehicle.
However, if a battery is disposed below the floor panel of a vehicle, and the vehicle is an FR drive system or 4WD system vehicle that needs a propeller shaft, the propeller shaft interferes with the center of the battery pack, and thus a plurality of battery packs needs to be disposed on both sides of the propeller shaft in the vehicle width direction.
Therefore, when the vehicle body floor structure in the above-mentioned JP-A No. 2000-247261 is applied to a vehicle that needs a propeller shaft, the temperature may vary in each battery pack.
In the above-mentioned JP-A No. 2000-247261, each battery pack needs a junction box, a battery control unit (BCU), a service plug, and the like. This increases the production cost. In the above-mentioned JP-A No. 2000-247261, each battery pack needs a junction box, a BCU, a service plug, and the like. Furthermore, additional manufacturing processes are needed for attaching the junction box, the BCU, the service plug, and the like to each battery pack.